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Dragon Fruit Pitaya – Farming and Planting Dragon Fruit Cuttings

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“Dragon Fruit Pitaya” or simply Dragon Fruit is known for its health benefits all over the world now but is not really a dragon but a fruit. It is said that the dragon fruit is one of the most health beneficial fruits today that the world is starting to realize the value that it posts to those who are regular eaters of the said fruit. Dragon fruit also had so many names under it profile as an exotic fruit and many fruit farmers today are looking for information on how to plant the said dragon fruit or how to produce seedling or cuttings and some would even dig deep on how to care for the dragon fruit while others hurry to the internet to seek for information on where to get or buy the dragon fruit cuttings or seedlings for their own planting.

Apart from the fact that dragon fruit pitaya harvest yields are high, the health benefits are also of a highly interesting level according to some fruit experts and health enthusiasts making it one of the most popular fruits of Chinese people whole year through. The dragon fruit has many names under it as I’ve mentioned above and I would like to provide them all here for the purpose of information to those who would be looking in to this exotic fruit. Dragon fruit is also called as “fire dragon fruit”, “lóng zh? gu?”, “dragon pearl fruit”, “hu? lóng gu?”, “thanh long” in Vietnan (green dragon), “strawberry pear”, “nanetikkafruit”.

The dragon fruit, some plant that is vine like by nature of crawling to a wooden post up to the top in a farm is actually an epiphytic Hylocereus cacti according to the Wikipedia informatio. These exotic fruit used to grow in abundance in Mexico and was grown in some part of South and Central America. Today, they were being cultivated in many parts of South East Asia like Thailand, China, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnamn, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. The flower with which it bears only blooms and opens at night, hence, it is called as the “moonflower” or “queen of the night”.

Dragon Fruit Pitaya or sweet pitayas have a creamy pulp texture and a slightly delicate aroma with a taste somehow resembling that of a sweet strawberry according to a Dragon fruit video that I just watched today. There are also so many types and colors of this dragon fruit pitaya which makes it even more interesting for many dragon fruit farms to feature in some of the videos I have seen in YouTube. Farming the dragon fruit can be a no hash job because the moment that you have planted the cuttings in the soil, there is no rush to water it nor a need to maintain watering the plant crop because it does not like overwatering which makes dragon fruit pitaya farming a very easy maintenance work with high yield fruit harvest at the end of the half year planting season.

Farming the dragon fruit pitaya is relatively easy and does not need any other special attention right after planting the dragon fruit cuttings. You do not even need to water the plant as it is a cacti type of plant that grows and blooms even without watering for weeks. Dragon fruit cuttings are also relatively easy to produce and easy to reproduce as when you have then ready from small plastic bags, you can wait for a few weeks to a month and you can at once plant it direct in the soil. Dragon fruit cuttings or seedlings are very easy to plant and no special method required except if you plan to make some farm, you will need to put up beside the plant, a wooden post with which it can climb up and I have seen some dragon fruit farms where the farmers put a small old used tire from a small vehicle which is usedto accommodate the plant when it grows.

The harvesting of the dragon fruit is also relatively easy as you just have to cut the edge of the fruit where it is attached to the cacti branch and presto. While farming of the dragon fruit as well as harvesting and producing cuttings and seedlings is ralatively a very easy task, a special information on the specific temperature where you can plant is not know to many. The dragon fruit is ideal for soil that is located in a 10 to 11a but not exceeding up to 40 degrees celcius. It also takes only about 6 months up to 9 months and you can harvest some fruit from the dragon fruit that you planted from cuttings or seedlings as some farmers say.